Kickbacks: AWB boss quits

Related coverage

The Iraqi wheat bribes scandal has claimed its first scalp with
AWB managing director Andrew Lindberg resigning today after weeks
of pressure.

Mr Lindberg quit "in the best interests of the company" and has
already relinquished his executive responsibilities, AWB said.

His resignation comes after allegations the wheat distributor
paid $300 million in kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime in breach
of United Nations sanctions.

And the federal opposition predicted more heads would roll
before the Cole Commission of Inquiry into the scandal finished its
investigation.

"This whole inquiry is a slow burn and before the sun sets on
this issue, I assume there'll be more resignations from AWB and
other groups," Labor's agriculture spokesman Gavan O'Connor
said.

Mr Lindberg, 52, joined AWB in April 2000 - the year after it
allegedly began paying kickbacks to Saddam's regime under the
United Nation's disgraced oil-for-food program.

The commission has heard that AWB's wheat price was inflated by
as much as 25 per cent to cover the kickbacks Saddam demanded from
more than 2000 companies under the corruption-ridden program.

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd said Mr Lindberg
had done the right thing by resigning and now it was time for the
government to show the same level of responsibility.

"Mr Lindberg has taken responsibility for his actions but John
Howard refuses to take any responsibility for the actions of his
government in approving these contracts with Iraq," Mr Rudd told
reporters.

Mr Rudd said he was disturbed that AWB chairman Brendan Stewart
- a board member since 2000 - had been made executive chairman of
the company.

"I find that decision remarkable," he said. "We have not yet
heard evidence in terms of Mr Stewart's knowledge of these
matters.

"I would hope that those responsible for making this decision
have taken all those factors into account."

Mr Lindberg was on the witness stand for almost four full days
from January 17 to 20, but denied knowing that the money AWB was
paying to Jordanian trucking company Alia was going to the Iraqi
government.

In his first day of evidence alone, he answered "I don't know"
to more than 40 questions.

During one heated exchange, commission senior counsel John Agius
asked Mr Lindberg if he was "a complete fool" - to which Mr
Lindberg said he was not.

During another, Mr Lindberg exclaimed: "I knew nothing!"

AWB said it would be inappropriate to respond to allegations or
the evidence given to the commission until the inquiry was
completed.

"The board will take all necessary steps to protect AWB and to
restore its reputation," it said in a statement.

But Labor's attempt to prove the government knew about the
kickbacks was dented this morning when Opposition Leader Kim
Beazley admitted there was "no smoking gun".

That contradicted Mr O'Connor's claim last night that the Wheat
Export Authority's (WEA) admission that it had investigated
possible kickbacks in mid-2004 showed that government ministers had
known about the bribes.

"Last night this was the smoking gun. This morning, the leader
of the opposition says there is no smoking gun," Agriculture
Minister Peter McGauran told parliament.

Transport Minister Warren Truss, who was agriculture minister at
the time of the WEA investigation, said the WEA had given AWB a
clean bill of health.

But government backbencher Bill Heffernan said the WEA was a
toothless tiger which had never been properly equipped to do its
job.

"We think the Wheat Export Authority ... have been a bed of
pansies where we need a cage full of gorillas," Senator Heffernan
told parliament.